Who’s the Nanny? Childcare Website Membership Hits 80k

April 5, 2011 - PRLog -- Childcare website Findababysitter.com hit 80,000 members this week. The company, which uses postcode and geographic data to return ‘where’s my nearest nanny’ results to parents, credits easy access geographic and addressing data as “essential” for their business model.

The company uses data from Postcode Anywhere to power its search engine, which enables families to find their own childcare without the involvement of an agency. Contacts in the database include babysitters, nannies, au pairs, child-minders and housekeepers.

The improved service, which re-launched in July 2009, has also grown its initial base of 25,000 local childcare and housekeeping candidates to a list numbering over 40,000.

Tom Harrow, CEO of Findababysitter.com, said: “Findababysitter.com is a one-stop resource for finding childcare and domestic help. The site was established to help people looking for a housekeeper, cleaner, or anything related to childcare – not just babysitters.

“I started the business with my wife Vanessa in 2006. She’d set up a nanny agency, now established with 15 staff. The website empowers people to do the search themselves. With a subscription fee of £30 per month, it can be a very cost-effective way to find childcare.

“We have 40,000 candidates and have just hit 80,000 members, with some more big milestones on the way. We already had a massive database of postcodes and it was just a case of fine-tuning it. Now people can search across London and the rest of the UK using full or part postcodes.

“We get more than 100 registrations a day. When someone registers with us, we validate their address using Postcode Anywhere. It’s very important to us to get the details right as they’re being entered. As with the geo-coding behind the “where’s my nearest?” tool powering the website, our whole business relies on the integrity of our data. Get it wrong, and this falls down.

“We did go through a process to see who would suit our needs best. We narrowed it down to three vendors, looking at price, track record, and by trying to get a feel for uptime levels. In the end, we chose Postcode Anywhere, because it ticked all the boxes.

“We’ve had zero downtime too, which is really very important to us – and to tell the truth, we’d happily pay a lot more for the quality of service we receive from Postcode Anywhere.

“If you want a full host of the postcode and geographic data it’s out of the question for a small business. But access to the data is essential for our business model. Why bother building the service yourself when it’s far more cost-effective and reliable to use an established supplier like Postcode Anywhere?”

The service enables childcare givers to actively search and find local childcare work by applying to jobs posted by families and inviting parents to view their profile page.

Findababysitter.com is free for child carers to sign up and search for local nanny or babysitting jobs. For more information, please visit www.findababysitter.com.

To find out more about Postcode Anywhere’s range of services for small businesses, please visit www.postcodeanywhere.com.

ENDS


Media contact for Postcode Anywhere
Jim Williams – PR Manager, Postcode Anywhere
jim@postcodeanywhere.com
+44 (0) 1905 888 570

Press centre at: http://www.postcodeanywhere.com/press
Press Pack download: http://www.postcodeanywhere.com/assets/PDFs/press-pack-20...
Childcare image: http://www.postcodeanywhere.co.uk/assets/Stock/findababys...

Notes to Editors:

About Postcode Anywhere

Postcode Anywhere supplies software and services which improve the day-to-day operations of over 8,000 organisations worldwide. Best known as a provider of address auto-fill and verification software, the company offers a range of data-driven services, including route planning, customer profiling and bank account validation. It is now the fastest-growing reseller of Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF®) and the market leader for online address auto-fill. A multi-award-winning organisation, it has also appeared in Deloitte’s European fast-growth technology company list for three years running. For more information about Postcode Anywhere, please visit www.postcodeanywhere.com.

Recent Awards and Recognition for Postcode Anywhere

•   Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2008/9, 2009/10 & 2010/11
•   Red Herring Top 100 Europe - 2010
•   Best Small IT Supplier of the Year - UK IT Industry Awards (finalist) – 2009
•   Dell Small Business Excellence Award (UK finalist) – 2009
•   Small-Medium Sized Business of the Year (regional finalist) - National Business Awards 2009
•   Orange Best Use of Technology (Midlands) - 2008 National Business Awards
•   Growth Business of the Year - Chamber Awards 2008
•   Small Business of the Year - Chamber Awards 2008
•   Customer Service Team of the Year (finalist) - National Customer Services Awards 2008

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Postcode Anywhere is a UK-based company best known for its market-leading “what’s your postcode” technology. Its services include route optimisation, international addressing, data cleansing, business information services and lifestyle profiling.